What makes you pick up a book? Stellar reviews, intriguing excerpts, and tailored suggestions from family and friends can help, but sometimes it’s the cover art that captures your attention. In a media environment defined by abundance, distraction, and fragmentation, the right design can spark feelings of affinity or nostalgia, create a lasting first impression, and bring potential readers in. That’s why we’ve turned to McKinsey Global Publishing’s designers to pick their favorite book covers from the 90-plus options featured in “What to read next: McKinsey’s 2025 annual book recommendations.” Here are their top seven selections.
All Fours by Miranda July
Recommended by: S. Mitra Kalita, Cofounder and CEO, URL Media; cofounder and publisher, Epicenter-NYC
Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet
Recommended by: Jamie Heller, Editor in chief, Business Insider
The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich by Evan Osnos
Recommended by: Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer, Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Inc. and Fast Company
The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past by Nate DiMeo
Recommended by: Kat Downs Mulder, Senior vice president and general manager, Yahoo News
I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán
Recommended by: Andrew Simon, Editor in chief, Chronicle of Philanthropy
The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality by William Egginton
Recommended by: Adam Falk, CEO and president, Wildlife Conservation Society
The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice by Dan Slepian
Recommended by: Rebecca Blumenstein, President of Editorial, NBC News
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